I’ve lost count, but I’m pretty sure this is at least the dozenth time someone has cured diabetes in this century.

Yet I’m still using needles. . .

BREITBART.COM - Diabetes Study at Washington U. Advances

A transplant-free approach to curing Type 1 diabetes using medication has been reaffirmed in tests on mice, according to a Washington University study.

The study, published this week in the journal Science, shows that there is a period of time in mice after the onset of diabetes where drugs can stop the immune system from attacking all the insulin- producing cells in the pancreas.

The story also indicates that this study rebuked a previous study that the gang at Lee Iacocca’s foundation has been propping up.

The funny thing is, if they cured diabetes tomorrow and gave me the wonder pill or wonder pancreas, I’d still probably check my blood sugar every night before I went to bed — just to be sure. I’m mental now, to boot.

This is the 64th DVD podcast:
Listen directly to the MP3 file. (Roughly 8 minutes, 4 MB)

Subscribe via iTunes, or use this XML file for your other podcatching client of choice.

PLEASE vote for this podcast at PodcastAlley.com.

Read about this podcast in PODCASTING HACKS.

Where to find release lists:
DVDJournal’s release list
TVShowsonDVD.com - monthly release list

Where to find more information on these movies:
Internet Movie Database

E-mail me at AUGIEDB *at* GMAIL *dot* COM. Or leave your comments in the comments section of this message.

I got hit this afternoon with about 250 spam comments, after a weekend of increased activity in that department. Thankfully, all the ones in today’s attack came from the same IP address, which was quickly and easily blocked. But I had to go through and delete a lot of comments. I’m pretty sure I didn’t accidentally delete any real comments, but my apologies if I accidentally did.

I might have to turn off the comments system for 24 hours sometime soon to scare away the punks who have been doing this lately, though. It won’t interfere with IDOL discussion, though. I’ll see to that.

Also — do NOT use the STRONG tag in your comments. I’m going to set this thing up to delete any comments with that tag in it automatically. That’s the favored spammer tag. I presume that’s because Google gives extra weight to bolded words. . .

Update: I recommend that all my fellow Word Press users (and any website owners, in general) go ahead and put a “deny from 195.242.236.20″ in their .htaccess file. Save yourself the trouble now.

Update 2: OK, I have to ask a stupid question to my fellow Word Press bloggers: I have comments turned off for all posts older than seven days, using the Auto-Close-Comments plugin. You can’t go to a story from last week, click on the comments button, and leave a message. YET the spammers are leaving messages in those threads. Not all posts land in the moderation queue, though. Some actually go through and are approved. How does this happen, when the database is told to close the comments thread? I’m confused and annoyed. . .

Adventures of Brisco County Jr., The - Brisco date, art and tons of extras!

…Warner Bros will release the complete series, all 28 TV hours worth (26 episodes and a 2 hour pilot - 1260 mins), on July 18. The set, which is a whopping 8 discs, will retail for $99.98.

Go to the link for full details and specs.

FOXNews.com - Foxlife: Entertainment and Lifestyle News - Can Older ‘Idol’ Wannabes Find Success?

When “American Idol” contestant Taylor Hicks belted out Stevie Wonder’s golden oldie “Living for the City” there was scant age difference between the singer and the 32-year-old song.

Hicks, 29, and other “Idol” finalists edging near 30 are testing the limits of just how old an aspiring pop star can be and still gain acceptance from the music industry and the public — while the TV contest reaps the rewards of showcasing older performers.

It is a very different show today than it was in season one, in this respect. You used to root for the kid with talent. Now you root for the talented singer, whether they’re a kid or not anymore.

Schneier on Security: Basketball Prank

On March 4, University of California Berkeley (Cal) played a basketball game against the University of Southern California (USC). With Cal in contention for the PAC-10 title and the NCAA tournament at stake, the game was a must-win.

Enter “Victoria.”

Victoria was a hoax UCLA co-ed, created by Cal’s Rally Committee. For the previous week, “she” had been chatting with Gabe Pruitt, USC’s starting guard, over AOL Instant Messenger. It got serious. Pruitt and several of his teammates made plans to go to Westwood after the game so that they could party with Victoria and her friends.

During the game, the fans then let the player have it.

At long last, #41 is in the books, along with a four year tour exemption. I know 50 wins is a lot to ask for, but two more Majors would make him the leader in both Total Tournament Victories and Total Majors Victories. That can all start in just two short weeks. . . Let’s just hope he isn’t constantly dogged with questions of “So, when are you going to BREAK the record, Walter Ray?” for the next year. UGH

This is one of the funniest bugs I’ve ever seen submitted. And it’s not a gag. This comes from Firefox’s Bugzilla:

Bug 330884

When different users on one system choose to save or not save passwords for sites, any other user can see sites they not only saved passwords for but can also see what other users have been saving/never saving passwords for.

This privacy flaw has caused my fiancé and I to break-up after having dated for 5 years.

It’s actually a really good bug submission, as she offers specific details on what goes wrong and why, and then gives advice on how to clean it up.

My hands hurt just watching this guy. The following presentation is a four minute juggling routine, non-stop, to the music of the Beatles.

Web 2.0 attacks your TiVo:

Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection: CozmoTV: Welcome to Television 2.0, Time to Supercharge the TiVo Part of Your Digital Lifestyle

So how does today’s CozmoTV work? Well, the current beta version is pretty simple. If you are familiar with scheduling your TiVo today online through TiVo Central or Yahoo you basically get the same functionality with Cozmo. […]

Once you have your TiVos set up you can then begin browsing for TV to watch. Like TiVo Cozmo will offer a wide variety of categories to browse from: history, documentary, science fiction, etc. and have full search capability. But this is where it gets interesting. In addition to searching by category, you are going to be able to tag television. Using a free form tagging system at Cozmo they are going to have users generate far more meta data which then will be searchable for deeper richer searches where you can find great new broadcast content.

Songs of the 21st century.

We see how well that theme worked for Ayla Brown. . . It’s a tougher category than you’d think. Since those songs are so recent, it takes a lot for a performer to step out from under the original’s more memorable shadow. It would be too easy to give a karaoke performance.

Post your suggested songs for specific contestants in the comments section below.

If Chris sings a Nickelback song, though, it might very well be the end of him. ;-)

It isn’t due out until August, but this article has a decent history of the ‘net phenomenon that is SNAKES ON A PLANE.

It also has news of a recent series of reshoots to up the movie from ‘PG-13′ to ‘R’:

Fan frenzy for ‘Snakes’ is on a different plane

When Ellis assembled Jackson and others for the recent shoot, the filmmakers added more gore, more death, more nudity, more snakes and more death scenes. And they shot a scene where Jackson does utter the line that fans have demanded.

Those involved with the film said the reshoots weren’t prompted by fans but rather by the existing footage that already was a hairline into R territory. Within the studio, the thinking was, “We’re already going to get an R, why not go all the way?” But the filmmakers do concede that the Jackson line will be in the movie for the sake of the fans.

I can’t quote that line here. You’ll have to click through for that one. It’s a little too ‘R’-rated for this blog.

It seems that they’re complaining because Clay was marketed to them as straight when he’s actually gay.

Or something. The world is too sue-happy.

FORMER CLAY AIKEN FANS RESPOND TO SIMON COWELL COMMENTS FROM LARRY KING LIVE

The nine former fans of Clay Aiken, listing themselves as aggrieved consumers, filed a FTC complaint on February 17 2006 against recording companies RCA and SONY/BMG for false advertising and misrepresentation in the marketing and promotion of Aiken. They remain extremely protective of their identities having encountered promises of harassment and online threats toward them from Aiken’s notorious fan base.

They compare the marketing of Clay Aiken to the lies of Milli Vanilli and Ashlee Simpson’s lip-synching on SNL.

People are funny.

Nobody’s buying it, but she’s offering it up:

Paula blames Simon for her goofiness on ‘Idol’ - Gossip: The Scoop - MSNBC.com

Paula Abdul admits that she’s been acting weird lately. And she says it’s all Simon Cowell’s fault.

The “American Idol” judge has fans buzzing with what seems inappropriate behavior and peculiar expressions — but she’s blaming her caustic co-judge.

“He’s worse than ever,” Abdul told In Touch Weekly. “If they say, ‘Paula is going crazy,’ the reason is Simon is whispering things in my ear, like, ‘What’s the price of beans?’ Things that make no sense at all.”

(Thanks, Shawn!)

Merchants X out A, E, I, O, and U - The Boston Globe

From Motorola’s SLVR phone to Levi’s DLX jeans, merchants are unveiling new products with compact names that feature as few A, E, I, O, U’s as possible. Vowel free, apparently, connotes cool and modern, and the race to capture that Zeitgeist, marketers say, has spawned Flickrs and Delivrs and even a Broadway show, ‘’Bklyn: The Musical.”

It’s a phenomenon that stems from the growing acceptance of shorthand in text-messaging and instant messaging, communication that encourages users to get as much said in as little time and space possible.